... 66 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Cowgate.
provided by the said charter, that each person commencing
business for ...
Book 4 p. 266
(Score 0.44)
... OLD -4ND NEW EDINBURGH. urffrey Street
of The Friend of India, and author of the ?Life
of Dr. IVilson of ...
Book 2 p. 290
(Score 0.44)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH.
So difficult was it to induce people to build in a
spot so sequestered and far apart ...
Book 3 p. 118
(Score 0.44)
![Holyrood. I KING DAVID?S CHARTER. 43
sake of trade ; and if it happen that they do no
come, I grant the aforesaid church from my ren
of Edinburgh forty shillings, from Stirling twentj
shillings, and from Perth forty shillings ; and ont
toft in Stirling, and the draught of one net foi
tishing ; and one toft in my Burgh of Edinburgh
free and quit of all custom and exaction ; and ont
toft in Berwick, and the draught of two nets ir
Scypwell ; one toft in Renfrew of five perches, tht
?draught of one net for salmon, and to fish thert
for herrings freely ; and I forbid any one to exact
from you or your men any customs therefor.
?? I moreover grant to the aforesaid canons from
my exchequer yearly ten pounds for the lights o
the church, for the works of that church, anc
repairing these works for ever. I charge, more
over, all my servants and foresters of Stirlingshirt
and Clackmannan, that the abbot and convent havt
free power in all my woods and forests, of taking
as much timber as they please for the building 01
their church and of their houses, and for any purpost
of theirs; and I enjoin that their men who take
timber for their use in the said woods have my
firm peace, and so that ye do not permit them tc
be disturbed in any way ; and the swine, the property
of the aforesaid church, I grant in all my
woods to be quit of pannage [food].
?? I grant, moreover, to the aforesaid canons the
half of the fat, tallow, and hides of the slaughter 01
Edinburgh ; and a tithe of all the whales and seabeasts
which fall to me from Avon to Coldbrandspath;
and a tithe of all my pleas and gains from
Avon to Coldbrandspath ; and the half of my tithe
of cane, and of my pleas and gains of Cantyre and
Argyll ; and all the skins of rams, ewes, and lambs
of the castle and of Linlithgow which die of my
flock ; and eight chalders of malt and eight of meal,
with thirty *cart-loads of bush from Liberton ; and
one of my mills of Dean; and a tithe of the mill
of Liberton, and of Dean, and of the new mill of
*Edinburgh, and of Craggenemarf, as much as I
.have for the same in my domain, and as much as
JVuieth the White gave them of alms of the same
Crag. I
? ?? I grant likewise to them leave to establish a
burgh between that church and my burgh.* And
. I grant that the burgesses have common right of
selling their wares and of buying in my market,
?freely and quit of claim and custom, in like manner
.as my own burgesses ; and I forbid that any one
take in this burgh, bread, ale, or cloth, or any ware
-by force, or without consent of the burgesses. I
grant, moreover, that the canons be quit of toll
. Here them is no mention of the town of Hcr6Crgrrs, alleged to haw
occupied the site of the Canongate.
and of all custom in all my burghs and throughout
all my land: to wit, all things that they buy
and sell.
?And I forbid any one to take pledge on the
land of the Holy Rood, unless the abbot of that
place shall have refused to do right and justice. I
will, moreover, that they hold all that is above
written as freely and quietly as I hold my own
lands ; and I will that the abbot hold his court as
freely, fully, and honourably as the Bishop of St.
Andrews and the Abbots of Dunfermline and
Kelso hold their courts.
?Witnesses tRobert Bishop of St. Andrews,
John Bishop of Glasgow, Henry my son, William
my grandson, Edward the Chancellor, Ilerbert the
Chamberlain, Gillemichael the Earl, Gospatrick the
brother of Dolphin, Robert of Montague, Robert
of Burneville, Peter of Brus, Norman the Sheriff,
Oggu, Leising, Gillise, William of Grahani, Turston
of Crechtune, Blein the Archdeacon, Aelfric the
Chaplain, Walerain the Chaplain.? l-
This document is interesting from its simplicity,
and curious as mentioning mzny places still known
under the same names. 1
The canons regular of the order of St. Augustine
were brought there from St. Andrews in Fifeshire.
The order was first established in Scotlayd
by Alexander I. in 1114, and ere long possessed
twenty-eight monasteries or foundations in tqe
So, in process of time, ?? in the hollow betweqn
two hills ? where King David was saved from the
white hart, there rose the great abbey house,
with its stately cruciform church, having three
:ewers, of which but a fragment now remainsT
i melancholy ruin. Till its completion the canods
Mere housed in the Castle, where they resided till
rbout 1176, occupying an edifice which had preiliously
been a nunnery.
The southern aisle of the nave is the only part
if the church on which a roof remains, and of the
whole range of beautifully clustered pillars on the
iorth side but two fragments alone survive. The
mtire ruin retains numerous traces of the original
vork of the twelfth century, though enriched by
he additions of subsequent ages. With reference
o the view of it in the old print which has been
:opied in these pages,$ it has been observed
hat therein ?the abbey church appears with a
econd square tower, uniform with the one still
tanding at the north of the great doorway. The
ransepts are about the usual proportions, but the
:hoir is much shorter than it is proved from other
kingdom. I
-
t ?Charters relatiagta Cityof E&bwgh,?&u xr43-x5+ao. 4ta. 1871.
f see ante, vol. i, p. 5.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p054.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III Page 42")
... I KING DAVID?S CHARTER. 43
sake of trade ; and if it happen that they do no
come, I grant the aforesaid ...
Book 3 p. 42
(Score 0.44)
![Castle Terrace.] THE UNION CANAL 215
newest mechanical appliances, including hydraulic
machinery for shifting the larger scenes. The
proscenium was 32 feet wide by 32 feet in height,
with an availabie width behind of 74 feet, expanding
backwards to 114 feet.
The lighting was achieved ?by a central sunlight
and lamps hung on the partition walls. The ventilation
was admirable, and the temperature was
regulated by steam-pipes throughout the house.
But the career of this fine edifice as a theatre
was very brief, and proved how inadequate Edinburgh
is, from the peculiar tastes and wishes of
its people, to supply audiences for more than two
or three such places of entertainment. It speedily
proved a failure, and being in the inarket was
purchased by the members of the United Presbyterian
Church, who converted it into a theological
hall, suited for an audience of 2,ooo in all.
The total cost of the building to the denomination,
including the purchase of the theatre, amounted
to ~47,000. Two flats under the street $oor are
fitted up as fireproof stores, which will cover in all
an area of 3,500 square yards.
In connection with this defunct theatre it was
proposed to have a winter garden and aquarium.
Near it the eye is arrested by a vast pile of new
buildings, fantastic and unique in design and
detail, the architect of which has certainly been
fortunate, at least, in striking out something
original, if almost indescribable, in domestic architecture.
Free St. Cuthbert?s Church is in Spittal Street,
which is named from Provost Sir James Spittal,
and is terminated by the King?s Bridge at the base
of the Castle Rock.
All this area of ground and that lying a little
to the westward have the general name of the
Castle Barns, a designation still preserved in a
little street near Port Hopetoun. A map of the
suburbs, in 1798, shows Castle Barns to be an
isolated hamlet or double row of houses on Lhe
Falkirk Road, distant about 250 yards from the
little pavilion-roofed villa still standing at the Main
Point. Maitland alleges that somewhere thereabout
an ediiice was erected for the accommodation
of the royal retinue when the king resided
in the Castle; and perhaps such may have been
the case, but the name implies its having been
the grange or farm attached to the fortress, and
this idea is confirmed by early maps, when a considerable
portion of the ground now lying on both
sides of the Lothian Road is included under the
general term.
On the plateau at the head of the latter, bordered
on the south-east by the ancient way to Fountainbridge,
stands one of the most hideous features
of Edinburgh-the Canal Basinl with its surrounding
stores and offices. 8
In 1817 an Act of Parliament was procured,
giving power to a joint stock company to cut a
a canal from Edinburgh to the Forth and Clyde
Canal at a point about four miles before the communication
of the latter with the Forth. The canal
was begun in the following year and completed in
1822. The chief objects of it were the transmission
of heavy goods and the conveyance of passengers
between the capital and Glasgow-a system long
since abandoned ; the importation to the former
of large coal supplies from places to the *estward,
and the exportation of manure from the city into
agricultural districts. The eastern termination,
calledPort Hopetoun, occasioned the rapid erect;on
of a somewhat important suburb, where before there
stood only a few scattered houses surrounded by
fields and groves of pretty trees; but the canal,
though a considerable benefit to the city in prerailway
times, has drained a great deal of money
from its shareholders.
Though opened in 182, the canal was considerably
advanced in the year preceding. In the
Week0 Journd for November 7, 1821, we read
that ?from the present state of the works, the
shortening of the days, and the probability of being
retarded by the weather, it seems scarcely possible
that the trade of this navigation can be opened up
sooner than the second month of spring, which
will be exactly four years from its commencement.
Much has been done within the last few months
on the west end of the line, while at the east end
the forming of the basin, which is now ready to
receive the water, together with the numerous
bridges necessary in the first quarter of a mile, have
required great attention. , Of the passage boats
building at the west end of Lochrin distillery, two
of which we mentioned some time ago as being
in a forward state, one is now completed ; she is
in every respect an elegant and comfortable vessel,
and is called the FZoora Mac Ivor; the second is
considerably advanced, and a third boat after the
same model as the others is commenced building.?
In the same (now defunct) periodical, for 1st
January, 1822, we learn that the RZora, ?the first
of the Union Canal Company?s passage boats, was
yesterday launched from the company?s building
yard, at the back of Gilmore Place.?
One of the best features of street architecture
that sprung up in this quarter after the formation
of the canal was Gardiner?s Crescent., with its
chapel, which was purchased from the United
Secession Congregation by the Kirk Session of St.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v4p035.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV Page 215")
... Terrace.] THE UNION CANAL 215
newest mechanical appliances, including hydraulic
machinery for shifting the ...
Book 4 p. 215
(Score 0.44)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. : [Convivialia
In 1783, ? a chapter of the order? was adver
tised ?to be held at their ...
Book 5 p. 124
(Score 0.44)
![Merchiston.] THE NAPIERS OF MERCHISTON. 35
likeness of the founder, painted by Sir James
Foulis of Woodhall, Bart.
In 1870 the original use to which the foundation
was put underwent a change, and the hospital
became a great public school for boys and girls.
At the western extremity of what was the Burghmuir,
near where lately was an old village of that
name (at the point where the Colinton road diverges
from that which leads to Biggar), there stands, yet
unchanged amid all its new surroundings, the
ancient castle of Merchiston, the whilom seat of a
race second to none in Scotland for rank and talent
-the Napiers, now Lords Napier and Ettrick. It
is a lofty square tower, surmounted by corbelled
battlements, a ape-house, and tall chimneys. It
was once surrounded by a moat, and had a secret
avenue or means of escape into the fields to the
north. As to when it was built, or by whom, no
record now remains.
In the missing rolls of Robert I., the lands of
Merchiston and Dalry, in the county of Edinburgh,
belonged in his reign to William Bisset, and under
David II., the former belonged to William de
Sancto Claro, on the resignation of Williani Bisset,
according to Robertson?s ?Index,? in which we find
a royal charter, ?datum est apud Dundee,? 14th
August, 1367, to John of Cragyof the lands of
Merchiston, which John of Creigchton had resigned.
So the estate would seem to have had several
proprietors before it came into the hands of
Alexander Napier, who was Provost of Edinburgh
in 1438, and by this acquisition Merchiston became
the chief title of his family.
His son, Sir Alexander, who was Comptroller of
Scotland under James 11. in 1450, and went on a
pilgrimage to St. Thomas of Canterbury in the
following year-for which he had safe-conduct from
the King of England-was Provost of Edinburgh
between 1469 and 1471- He was ambassador to
the Court of the Golden Fleece in 1473, and was
no stranger to Charles the Bold ; the tenor of his
instructions to whom from James II., shows that he
visited Bruges a d the court of Burgundy before
that year, in 1468, when he was present at the
Tournament of the Golden Fleece, and selected a
suit of brilliant armour for his sovereign.
Sir Alexander, fifth of Merchiston, fell at Flodden
with James IV.
John Napier of Merchiston was Provost 17th
of May, 1484, and his son and successor, Sir Archibald,
founded a chaplaincy and altar in honour of St.
Salvator in St. Giles?s Church in November, 1493.
His grandson, Sir Archibald Napier, who married
a daughter of Duncan Campbell of Glenorchy, was
slain at the battle of Pinkie, in 1547.
Sir Alexander Napier of Merchiston and Edinbellie,
who was latterly Master of the Mint to
James VI., was father of John Napier the
celebrated inventor of the Logarithms, who was
born in Merchiston Castle in 1550, fgur years after
the birth of Tycho Brahe, and fourteen before that
of Galileo, at a time when the Reformation in
Scotland was just commencing, as in the preceding?
year John Knox had been released from the
French galleys, and was then enjoying royal
patronage in England. His mother was Janet,
only daughter of Sir Francis Bothwell, and sister
of Adam, Bishop of Orkney. At the time of his
birth his father was only sixteen years of age. He
was educated at St. Salvator?s College, St. Andrews,
where he matriculated 1562-3, and afterwards spent
several years in France, the Low Countries, and
Italy; he applied himself closely to the study of
mathematics, and it is conjectured that he gained
a taste for that branch of learning during his residence
abroad, especially in Itily, where at that
time were many mathematicians of high repute.
While abroad young Napier escaped some perils
that existed at home. In 150s a dreadful pest
broke out in Edinburgh, and his father and family
were exposed to the contagion, ? by the vicinity,?
says Mark Napier, ?? of his mansion to the Burghmuir,
upon which waste the infected were driven
out to grovel and die, under the very walls of
Merchiston.?
In his earlier years his studies took a deep theological
turn, the fruits of which appeared in his
? Plain Discovery of the Revelation of St John,?
which he published at Edinburgh in 1593, and
dedicated to James VI. But some twenty years
before that time his studies must have been sorely
interrupted, as his old ancestral fortalice lay in the
very centre of the field of strife, when Kirkaldy
held out the castle for Queen Mary, and the savage
Douglas wars surged wildly round its walls.
On the 2nd April, 1572, John Napier, then in his
twenty-second year, was betrothed to Elizabeth,
daughter of Sir James Stirling of Keir ; but as he
had incurred the displeasure of the queen?s party
by taking no active share in her interests, on the
18th of July he was arrested by the Laid of Minto,
and sent a prisoner to the Castle of Edinburgh,
then governed by Sir TVilliam Kirkaldy, who in the
preceding year had bombarded Merchiston with
his iron guns because certain soldiers of the king?s
party occupied it, and cut off provisions coming
north for the use of his garrison. The solitary
tower formed the key of the southern approach
to the city ; thus, whoever triumphed, it became the
object of the opponent?s enmity.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p046.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 35")
... THE NAPIERS OF MERCHISTON. 35
likeness of the founder, painted by Sir James
Foulis of Woodhall, ...
Book 5 p. 35
(Score 0.44)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Moultray?s Hill.
country where pedigree is the best ascertained of
any in the world, ...
Book 2 p. 372
(Score 0.44)
... THE NEW ROYAL INFIRMARY. 359
aunt Elizabeth, ordered that on application for
taking children ...
Book 4 p. 359
(Score 0.44)
![238 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
-to hir lovite suitore, Johne Chisholme, his airis and
. assignais, all and hailk hir lands callit the King?s
Werk in Leith, within the boundis specifit in the
infeftment maid to him thairupon, quhilkis than
-war alluterlie decayit, and sensyne are reparit and
re-edifit, he the said Johne Chisholnie, to the policy
.and great decoration of this realme, in that office,
place, and sight of all strangeris and utheris re-
- sortand to the Schore of Leith.?
In 1575 it had been converted into a hospital
- for the plague-stricken ; but when granted to Bernard
Lindsay in 1613, he was empowered to keep
four taverns in the buildings, together with the
tennis-court, for the then favourite pastime of
?catchpel. It continued to be used for that purpose
till the year 1649, when it was taken pos-
2 session of by the magistrates of Edinburgh, and
. converted into a weigh-house.
? In what part of the building Bemard Lindsay
commenced tavern-keeping we are unable to say,?
observes Campbell, in his ? History of Leith,? ? but
.are more than half disposed to believe it was that
old house which projects into Bernard Street, and
is situated nearly opposife the British Linen Com-
,pany?s Bank.? ?? The house alluded to,? adds
Robertson on this, ?has a carved stone in front,
representing a rainbow rising from the clouds, with
a date 165-, the last figure being obliterated, and
-can hatre no reference to Bernard Lindsay.?
The tennis-court of the latter would seem to have
been frequently patronised by the great Marquis of
Montrose in his youth, as in his ?? Household Accounts,?
under date 1627, are the following entries
.(Mait. Club Edit.) :-
?? Item to the poor, my Lord taking coch . . qs.
Item, carrying the graith to Leth . . . . 8s.
Item, to some poor there . . . . . . 3s
Item, to my Lord Nepar?s cochman . .
Item, for balls in the Tinnes Court of Leth..
. . 6s. Sd.
16s.?
The first memorial of Bernard Lindsay is in
the Parish Records ? of South Leith, and is dated
17th July, 1589 :-? The quhilk days comperit
up Bemard Lindsay and Barbara Logan, and gave
their names to be proclamit and mareit, within
this date and Michaelmas.-JoHN LOGANE, Cautioper.?
Another record, 2nnd September, I 633, bears
that the Session ? allowis burial to Barbara Logane,
-.elict of Bernard Lindsaye, besyde her husbande in
the kirk-yeard, in contentation yairof, 100 merks to
be given to the poor.?
From Bernard Lindsay, the name of the present
Bernard Street is derived. Bernard?s Nook has
long been known. ?? In the ? Council Records? of
Edinburgh, 1647,? says Robertson, ?is the following
entry :-? To the purchase of the Kingis Werk,
in Leith, 4,500 lib. Scot.? A previous entry, 1627,
refers to dealing with the sons of Bernard Lindsay,
?for their house in Leith to be a custom-house. . . .?
We have no record that any buildings existed beyond
the bounds of the walls or the present
Bernard Street at this time, the earliest dates on
the seaward part of the Shore being 1674-1681.?
The old Weigh-house, or Tron of Leith, stood
within Bernard?s Nook, on the west side of the
street ; but local, though unsupported, tradition
asserts that the original signal-tower and lighthouse
of Leith stood in the Broad Wynd.
Wilson thus refers to the relic of the Wark
already mentioned :-?? A large stone panel, which
bore the date 1650-the year immediately succeeding
the appropriation of the King?s Wark to
civic purposes-appeared in the north gable of the
old weigh-house, which till recently occupied its
site, with the curious device of a rainbow carved
in bold relief springing at either end from a bank
of clouds.?
? So,? says Arnot, ?? this fabric, which was reared
for the sports and recreations of a Court, was
speedily to be the scene of the ignoble labours of
carmen and porters, engaged in the drudgery of
weighing hemp and of iron.?
Eastward of the King?s Wark, between Bernard?s
Street and chapel, lies the locality once so curiously
designated Little London, and which, according to
Kincaid, measured ninety feet from east to west,
by seventy-five broad over the walls. ? How it
acquired the name of Little London is now
unknown,? says Camphell, in his ? History ? ;
?but it was so-called in the year 1674, We do
not see, however,? he absurdly remarks, ?that it
could have obtained this appellation from any
other circumstauce than its having had some
real or supposed resemblance to the [English]
metropolis.?
As the views preserved of Little London show it
to have consisted of only four houses or so, and
these of two storeys high, connected by a dead
wall with one doorway, facing Bemard Street in
1800, Campbell?s theory is untenable. It is much
more probable that it derived its name from being
the quarters or cantonments of those 1,500 English
soldiers who, under Sir Williani Drury, Marshal of
Berwick, came from England in April, 1573, to
assist the Regent Morton?s Scottish Companies in
the reduction of Edinburgh Castle. These men
departed from Leith on the 16th of the following
June, and it has been supposed that a few of them
may have been induced to remain, and the locality
thus won the name of Little London, in the same](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p057.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI Page 238")
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
-to hir lovite suitore, Johne Chisholme, his airis and
. assignais, all and ...
Book 6 p. 238
(Score 0.43)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Glton Hill.
money appropriated for the work was totally exhausted,
and the luckless ...
Book 3 p. 106
(Score 0.43)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street
On becoming provost, he was easily led by his
religious persuasion to ...
Book 2 p. 222
(Score 0.43)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Heriot?s Hospital
the four blocks at each angle of the quadrangle
are furnished with ...
Book 4 p. 370
(Score 0.43)
![University.] THE NEW BUILDING COMPLETED. 2 3
Elder being Lord Provost of the city, William
Robertson, Principal of the University, and Robert
Adam, the architect. ? May the undertaking prosper
and be crowned with success.?
The proceedings of the day were closed by a
princely banquet in the Assembly Rooms.
The building was now begun, and, portion by
portion, the old edifices engrafted on those of the
Kirk-of-Field gave place to the stately quadrangular
university of the present day; and, as nearly as
can be ascertained, on the spot occupied by the
Senate Hall stood that fatal tenement in which
King Henry was lodged on his return from Glas
gow, and which was partly blown up on the night
of his assassination, between the 9th and 10th of
February, 1567. In the repaired portion some
of the professors resided, and it was averred to
be ghost haunted, and the abode of mysterious
sounds.
The foundation stone of the old university-if
it ever had one-was not discovered during the
erection of the present edifice. The magistrates,
with more zeal for the celebrity of the city than
consideration for their financial resources, having
wished that-subscriptions apart-they should bear
the chief cost of the erection, it remained for more
than twenty years after the foundation-stone
was laid a monument of combined vanity, rashness,
and poverty, Government, as usual in most
Scottish matters, especially in those days, withholding
all aid. Yet, in 1790, when Profess01
William Cullen, first physician to His Majesty in
Scotland, and holder of the chair of medicine from
1773, died, it was proposed (( to erect a . statue to
him in the new university,? the walls of which
were barely above the ground.
Within the area of the latter masses of the old
buildings still remained, and in the following year,
1761, these gave accommodation to 1,255 students.
In that year we learn from the Scots Magazine that
the six noble pillars which adorn the front, each
22 feet 4 inches high, and in diameter 3 feet 3 inches,
were erected. These were brought from Craigleith
quarry, each drawn by sixteen horses.
Kincaid records that the total sum subscribed
by the end of February, 1794, amounted to only
If;32,000. Hence the work languished, and at
times was abandoned for want of funds; and
about that time we read of a meeting of Scottish
officers held at Calcutta, who subscribed a sum
towards its completion, the Governor-General, Lord
Cornwallis, heading the list with a contribution ol
3,000 sicca rupees.
But many parts of the edifice remained an open
aid unfinished ruin, in which crows and other
.
birds built their nests ; and a strange dwarf, known
as Geordie More (who died so lately as 1828), built
unto himself a species of booth or hut at the
college gate unchallenged.
In an old (( Guide to Edinburgh,? published in
181 I, we read thus of the building :-? It cannot
said to be yet half finished, notwithstanding the
prodigious sums expended upon it ; if we advert to
the expenses which will unavoidably atttend the
completing of its ichnography or inside accommodations,
and, without the interference of the Legislature,
it will perhaps be exhibited to posterity as a
melancholy proof of the poverty of the nation.?
This state of matters led to the complete curtailment
of Adam?s grand designs, and modifications
of them were ultimately accomplished by Mr. W.
H. Playfair, after Parliament, in 1815, granted an
annual sum of LIO,OOO for ten years to finish
the work, which, however, was not completely done
till 1834; and since then, the idea of the great
central dome, which was always a part of the
original design, seems now to have been entirely
abandoned.
The university, as we find it now, presents its
main front to South Bridge Street, and forms an
entire side respectively to West College Street, to
South College Street, and to Chambers Street
on the north. It is a regular parallelogram,
356 feet long by 225 wide, extending in length
east and west, and having in its centre a stately
quadrangular court. The main front has some
exquisite, if simple, details, and is of stupendous
proportions. In style, within and without, it is
partly Palladian and partly Grecian, but is so
pent up by the pressure of adjacent streetson
three sides, at least-that it can never be seen
to advantage, It has been said that were the
university ? situated in a large park, particularly
upon a rising ground, it would appear almost
sublime, and without a parallel among the modern
edifices of Scotland ; but situated as it is, it makes
upon the mind of a stranger, in its exterior views
at least, impressions chiefly of bewilderment and
confusion.?
It is four storeys in height, and is entered by
three grand and lofty arched porticoes from the
east ; at the sides of these are the great Craigleith
columns above referred to, each formed of a single
stone.
On the summit is a vast entablature, bearing
the following inscription, cut in Roman letters :-
?Academia Jacobi VI., Scotorum Regis anno post
Christum natum b1,DLXXXII. instituta ; annoque
M,DCC,LXXXIX., renovari coepta ; regnante Georgio III.
Principe munificentissimo ; Urbis Edinensis Pmfecto](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p034.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 23")
... THE NEW BUILDING COMPLETED. 2 3
Elder being Lord Provost of the city, William
Robertson, Principal ...
Book 5 p. 23
(Score 0.43)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [North Bridge.
. of the greatest hits in the annals of the Theatre
Royal; and it was ...
Book 2 p. 350
(Score 0.43)
... some stone coffins, or cists, were found by
the workmen, when preparing the ground for the - -
erection of ...
Book 5 p. 71
(Score 0.43)
![High Street.] CARRUBBER?S CLOSE. 239
the name of ? the Hanoverian usurpers ? from all
their devotions. But the humble chapels with
which these old Scottish Episcopalians contented
themselves in Carrubber?s Close, Skinner?s Close,
and elsewhere, present a wonderful contrast? to their
St. Paul?s and St. Mary?s in the Edinburgh of
to-day.
In this close was the house of Robert Ainslie?s
master, during Burns?s visit to Edinburgh, Mr.
Samuel Mitchelson, a great musical amateur ; and
here it was that occurred the famous ?Haggis
Scene,?described by Smollett in ?Humphrey Clinker.?
At the table of Mitchelson the poet was a frequent
guest, while on another floor of the old Clam Shell
Land, as it was named, dwelt another friend of
Burns?s, the elder Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo,
prior to his removal to the New Town. On the
second floor of an ancient stone land at the head
.of the close dwelt Captain Matthew Henderson,
a well-known antiquary, a gentleman of agreeable
and dignified manners, who was a hero of Minden,
and .a member of the Crochallan Club, and dined
constactly at Fortune?s tavern.
He died in 1789, and Bums wrote a powerful
elegy on him as ? a gentleman who held the patent
for his honours immediately from Almighty God.?
? I loved the man much, and have not flattered his
memory,? said Burns in a note to the elegy, which
contains sixteen verses. The old captain was one
whom all men liked. ? In our travelling party,?
says Sir James Campbell of Ardkinglas in his
(suppressed) Memoirs, ? was Matthew Henderson,
then (I 759) and afterwards well known and much
esteemed in the town of Edinburgh, at that time
an officer in the 25th Regiment of Foot, and, like
myself, on his way to join the army; and I may say
with truth, that in the course of a long life I have
never known a more estimable character than
Matthew Henderson.?
This close was the scene of the unsuccessful
speculation of another poet, for here Allan Ramsay
made a bold attempt to establish his theatre,
which was roughly closed by the magistrates in
1737, after it had been barely opened, for which
he took a poet?s vengeance in rhyme in the
GenlZmn?s Magazine. The edifice, which stood
at the foot of the close, was quizzically named
st. Andrew?s Chapel, and in 1773 was the arena
for the debates of a famous speculative club named
the Pantheon.
Five years subsequently Hind Dr. Moyes, the
clever lecturer on natural philosophy, held forth
therein to audiences both fashionable and select,
on optics, the property?of light, and so forth. It
was afterwards occupied by Mr. John Barclay,
founder of the Bereans, whose chief tenet was, that
the knowledge of the existence of God is derived
from revelation and not from Scripture.
From him and his followers Ramsay?s luckless
theatre passed to the Rev. Mr. Tait and other
founders of the Rowites, during whose occupancy
the pulpit was frequently filled by the celebrated
Edward Irving. The Relief and Secession congregations
have also had it in succession; the
Catholics have used it as a schoolroom ; and till
its demolition to make way for Jeffrey Street, it
has been the arena of a strange oZZapodda of per
sonages and purposes.
In Carrubber?s Close stood the ancient Tailor?s
Hall, the meeting-place of a corporation whose
charter, granted to them by the Town Council, is
dated 20th October, 1531, and with their original
one, was further confirmed by charters from James V.
and JamesVI. Theyhad analtar in St. Giles?sChurch
dedicated to their patron St. Ann, and the date of
their seal of cause is 1500. They had also an
altar dedicated to St. Ann in the Abbey church,
erected in 1554 by permission of Robert Commendator
of Holyrood.
The fine old hall in the Cowgate has long
since been abandoned by the Corporation, which
still exists; and in their other place of meeting
in Carrubber?s Close an autograph letter of
King James VI., which hung framed and glazed
over the old fireplace, was long one of its chief
features.
It was dated in 1594, and ran thus; but afew
lines will suffice for a specimen :-
?Dekin and remanent Maisters and Brethren of the
Tailyer Craft within oure burgh of Edinburgh, we g e t
zow weilL
?Forsaemeikle as, respecting the gude service of AZexander
MilZer, in making and working the abulzements of our
awn person, minding to continue him in oure service, as ain
maist fit and meit persone. We laitlie recommendit him into
zow be oure letter of requiest, desiring you to receive and
admit him gratis to the libertie and fredom of the said craft,
as a thing maist requisite for him, having the a i r of our
awin wark, notwithstanding that he was not prenteis
amongk zow, according to your ancient liberties and priviliges
had in the contraie. M?illing zow at this our requiest to
dispense him thereanent, &c, JAMES R.?
The king?s request was no doubt granted, and
the Alexander Miller to whom it referred died in
1616, a reputable burgess, whose tomb in the
Greyfriars? churchyard was inscribed thus by
his heirs :-
?AZexundro Milka, Jorobi Mug. Brit. FY&, &c.,
Regis Sarion; adfiltrni vifre, frinrario, hmedes. F. C. *it
annb 57, obiit Principis et Civium iauta decoratus, Anno
1616. Maii 2.??](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p059.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II Page 239")
... Street.] CARRUBBER?S CLOSE. 239
the name of ? the Hanoverian usurpers ? from all
their devotions. But the ...
Book 2 p. 239
(Score 0.43)
![THE FREE CHURCH COLLEGE. 95 The Mound.]
Much of all this was altered when the bank was
enlarged, restored, and most effectively re-decorated
by David Bryce, R.S.A., in 1868-70. It now
presents a lofty, broad, and arch-based rear front of
colossal proportions to Princes Street, from whence,
and every other poiiit of view, it forms a conspicuous
mass, standing boldly from among the
many others that form the varied outline of the
Old Town, and consists of the great old centre with
new wings, surmounted by a fine dome, crowned
by a gilded figure of Fame, seven feet high. In
length the facade measures 175 feet; and 112 in
height from the pavement in Bank Street to the
summit, and is embellished all round with much
force and variety, in details of a Grecian style.
The height of the campanile towers is ninety feet.
The bank has above seventy branches ; the subscribed
capital in 1878 was A1,875,000 ; the paidup
capital LI,Z~O,OOO. There are a governor (the
Earl of Stair, K.T.), a deputy, twelve ordinary
and twelve extra-ordinary directors.
The Bank of Scotland issues drafts on other
places in Scotland besides those in which it has
branches, and also on the chief towns in England
and Ireland, and it has correspondents throughout
the whole continent of Europe, as well as in
British America, the States, India, China, Australia,
New Zealand, South Africa, and elsewhere-a ramification
of business beyond the wildest dreams oi
John Holland and the original projectors of the
establishment in the old Bank Close in 1695.
Concerning the Earthen Mound, the late Alex.
ander Trotter of Dreghorn had a scheme foi
joining the Qld Town to the New, and yet avoiding
Bank Street, by sinking the upper end of the
mound to the leve! of Princes Street, and carrying
the Bank Street end of it eastward along the north
of the Bank of Scotland, in the form of a handsomc
terrace, and thence south into the High Street b)
an opening right upon St. Giles?s Church. Thf
next project was one by the late Sir Thomas Dick
Lauder. He also proposed to bring down thc
south end of the mound ?to the level of Prince;
Street, and then to cut a Roman arch through thc
Lawnmarket and under the houses, so as to pas!
on a level to George Square. This,? say!
Cockburn, ?was both practical and easy, but i
was not expounded till too late.??
Not far from the Bank of Scotland, in I(
North Bank Street, ensconced among the might!
mass of buildings that overlook the mound, arc
the offices of the National Security Savings Ban1
of.Edinburgh, established under statute in 1836, an(
certified in terms of the Act 26 and 27 Victoria
cap. 87, managed by a chairman and cominittel
I
if management, the Bank of Scotland being
reasurer.
Of this most useful institution for the benefit of
,he thrifty poorer classes, suffice it to say, as a
ample of its working, that on striking the yearly
iccounts on the 20th of November, 1880, ?the
balance due to depositors was on that date
&r,305,27g 14s. 7d., and that the assets at the
same date were x1,3og,3g2 Ss., invested with the
Commissioners for the Reduction of the National
Debt, and A3,1o4 3s. gd., at the credit of the
3ank?s account in the Bank of Scotland, making
the total assets L1,312,496 11s. gd., which, after
ieductionof the above sum of L1,305,279 14s. 7d.,
leaves a clear surplus of A7916 17s. zd. at the
:redit of the trustees.?
The managers are, ex oficio, the Lord Provost,
the Lord Advocate, the senior Bailie of the city,
:he Members of Parliament for the city, county,
md Leith, the Provost of Leith, the Solicitor-
General, the Convener of the Trades, the Lord
Dean of Guild, and the Master of the Merchant
Company.
In the sanie block of buildings are the offices of
the Free Church of Scotland, occupying the site of
the demolished half of James?s Court. They were
erected in 1851-61, and are in a somewhat
Rorid variety of the Scottish baronial style, from
designs by the late David Cousin.
In striking contrast to the terraced beauty of the
New Town, the south side of the vale of the old
loch, from the North Bridge to the esplanade of
the Castle, is overhung by the dark and lofty gables
and abutments of those towering edifices which
terminate the northern alleys of the High Street,
and the general grouping of which presents an
aspect of equal romance and sublimity. From
amid these sombre masses, standing out in the
white purity of new freestone, are the towers and
facade of the Free Church College and Assembly
Hall, at the head of the Mound.
Into the history of the crises which called
these edifices into existence we need not enter
here, but true it is, as Macaulay says, that for the
sake of religious opinion the Scots have made
sacrifices for which there is no parallel in the
annals of England; and when, at the Disruption,
so many clergymen of the Scottish Church cast
their bread upon the waters, in that spirit of
independence and self-reliance so characteristic of
the race, they could scarcely have foreseen the
great success of their movement.
This new college was the first of those instituted
in connection with the Free Church. The idea
was origipally entertained of making provision for](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p107.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III Page 95")
... FREE CHURCH COLLEGE. 95 The Mound.]
Much of all this was altered when the bank was
enlarged, restored, and ...
Book 3 p. 95
(Score 0.42)
... VERNOUR?S
from the two bridges named, it seems to cower in
its gorge, a narrow and dusky river of ...
Book 4 p. 239
(Score 0.42)
![280 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
number of wounded men on his hands, bore awa]
to Barbadoes to re-fit.
In the spring of the following year, a Leitl
sloop, coming from Strichen, laden with wheat anc
cheese, was taken off St. Abb?s Head by two Frenct
privateers of twelve and sixteen guns-the latter was
Le MarichaZ Duc de NoaiZZes, painted quite black.
When the sloop struck a tremendous sea was run.
ning ; Laverock, the master, ransomed her for IOC
guineas, and reported at Leith that if these twc
great privateers were not taken soon, they wopld
ruin the east coast trade of Scotland.
Soon after another ship of Leith was taken by
them into Bergen, and ransonied for 500 guineas,
though a few days before the privateer had been
severely handled by the EZiza6efh, merchant ship,
Captain Grant, who had also to strike to her, afteI
a most severe combat.
In 1794, the Haith, of Leith, was captured by a
squadron of French ships on the zIst August,
together with the Dundee, whaler, of Dundee. The
latter was re-taken, and brought into Leith by H.M.
brig Fisher, which reported that, previous to re-capture,
the Dundee had picked up a boat, having on
board eight Frenchmen, part of a prize crew of
sixteen put on board the Raifir to take her to
Bergen ; but the mate and another Scottish seaman
had daringly re-taken her, and had sailed none
knew whither. Soon after a letter reached the
owners in Leith from Lyons, the mate, dated from
Lerwick, briefly stating that when fifteen miles
west of Bergen, ?1 retook her from the French,
sending nine of the Frenchmen away in one of the
boats, ancl put the rest in confinement.? Eventually
these two brave fellows brought the ship to
Leith, from whence their prisoners were sent to
the Castle.
In those days the Glass House Company had
their own armed ships, and one of these, the
Phemk, Cornelius Neilson, master, had the reputation
of being one of the swiftest sailers in Leith,
and was always advertised to sail with or without
convoy, as she fought her own way.
In 1797, the BreadaZbane Letter of Marque, of
Leith, captured a large Spanish brig off the coast
of South America, and sent her into Leith Roads
for sale, under the convoy of the RoyaZ ChrZoffe,
Captain Elder.
During the latter end of the eighteenth century
Leith possessed two frigate-built ships of remarkable
beauty, the RoseUe, a Letter of Marque, and
the MoreZan/E, her sister ship, which usually fought
their own way; and the former was so like a man-ofwar
in her size and appearance, that she frequently
gave chase for a time to laige foreign privateers.
In the NeraZd for 1798 we read that on her appeacance
off Peterhead, in March, she created such consternation
that the captain of the RoJert, a Greenlandman,
on a gun being fired from her, ran his
ship ashore, according to one account, and, according
to another, made his escape, with the assistance
of his crew, from the supposed enemy. The
MoreZand and the Lady Fwbes,,? of Leith, another
armed ship, seem always to have sailed in company,
for protection, to and from the West Indies.
After many escapes and adventures, the beautiful
RoseZZe, which carried fourteen guns of large calibre,
was captured at last by a Spanish line-of-battle ship,
which, report said, barbarously sank her, with all
on board, by a broadside.
On the 6th December, 1798, theBefsy, of Leith,
Captain Mackie, having the Angus regiment of
volunteers on board, from Shetland, in company
with an armed cutter, was attacked off Rattray
Head by two heavily-armed French privateers. A
severe engagement ensued, in which the volunteers
made good use of their small arms; the
privateers were crippled and beaten off by the
Befsy, which ran next day into Banff, and the
roops were put on shore.
In the same month The Generous Triends, sailing
from Leith to Hull, when a few miles off the
mouth of the Humber, in a heavy gale of wind,
was overtaken by a large black privateer, having a
?oop and fiddle-head painted red and white. The
ieavy sea prevented her from being boarded, and
:he appearance of the Baltic fleet compelling the
:nemy to sheer off, she bore up with the latter, and
yeturned to Leith Roads; but such little excitenents
were of constant occurrence in those stirring
imes
The Nancy, of Leith, Captain Grindley, was
:aken, in July, I 799, off Dungeness, by the Ado&h,
ugger, of eighteen guns and fifty men, who used
iim and his crew with great severity prior to their
Jeing cast into the horrible prison at Valenciennes.
?The behaviour of the Frenchmen to us, when
aken, was most shameful,? he wrote to his owners
n Leith. 6? When they got upon our deck, they
Kept firing their pistols, cutting with swords for some
ime, and dragging those who were below out of
Heir beds; they cut and mangled in a cruel manner
me of our men, William Macleod, who was then
it the helm, and afterwards threw him overhoard.
rhis obliged the rest of the crew to leave the
leck and go below. In a short time we were
It is interesting to remark that the original painting, after which the
rawing of Plate 32 ( ? I Leith Pier and Harbour, 1798 ?) was made, ws
iainted for Caprain Gourley, who was part owner of the Lady Fades,
The Editor is obliged
o bir. R. F. Todd, owner of the painting in question, for this information.
Letter of Marque that carried 14 mnada.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p099.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI Page 280")
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
number of wounded men on his hands, bore awa]
to Barbadoes to re-fit.
In the ...
Book 6 p. 280
(Score 0.42)
![KING’S STABLES, CASTLE BARNS, AND CASTLE HILL. 151
a piscina; and those of France were in the same position in the floor above.‘ In their
original po,sition these devices were so obscured with dirt and whitewash as to appear
merely rnde plaster ornaments ; but on their removal they proved to be very fine and carefully-
finished carvings in oak, and retaining marks of the colours with which they had
been blazoned. These heraldic bearings are not only interesting, as confirming the early
tradition first mentioned by Maitland,-a careful and conscientious antiquary,-of its
having been the residence of Mary of Guise, but they aEord a very satisfactory clue to the
period of her abode there. James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, was created Duke of Chatelherault
in the year 1548, but not fully confirmed in the title till 1551, when it was
conceded to him as part of his reward for resigning the Regency to the Queen Dowager ;
and that same year she returned from France to assume the government. The death of
Henry 11. of Frame occurred in 1559, just about the period when the complete rupture
took place between the Regent and the Lords of the Congregation, after which time her
chief place of residence was in Leith, until her last illness, when she took up her abode
in the Castle of Edinburgh, where she died. The interval between these dates entirely
coincides with that period of her history when she might be supposed to have chosen such a
residence within the city walls, and near the Castle, while the burning of the Capital and
Palace by the English army in 1544 was of so recent occurrence, and the buildings of the
latter were probably only partially restored.’
In rtccordance with the traditions of the locality, we have described the property in Todd’s
Close as forniing a part of the Guise Palace, entered from Blyth’s Close, and with which
there existed an internal communication. It appears, however, from the title-deeds of the
property, that this portion of the range of ancient buildings had formed, either in the
Chambers mentions (Traditions, vol. i p. 80) having seen, in the possession of an antiquarian friend, the City Arms,
which had been removed from a similar situation in the third floor. We have reason to believe, however, that he w a ~
mistaken in this, and that the arms he saw were removed from an old houae on the south side of the Canongate.
“ The Queen Dowager,”
says Calderwood, A.D. 1554, “came from the Parliament Houa, to the Palace of Halyrudhous, with the honnoura borne
before her ” [vol. i. p, 2831, on which Knox remarks, that, “ It waa als seemelie a sight to see the crowne putt upon her
head, as to see a aaddle putt upon the backe of an unrulie kow ! ” This, however, and similar alluaiona to her going to
the Palace on occasions of state, cannot be considered as necesaarily inconsistent with the occupation of a private
mansion. The titledeeds of the property which we have examined throw no light on this interesting question. They
are all comparatively recent, the earlieat of them bearing the date of 1622.
Some curious information about the household of Mary of Guise is furnished in the selection from the register of
the Privy Seal of Scotland, appended to Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, e.g. 1538. “ Item, for iiij elnia grene veluet, to be
ye covering of ane eadill to the fule.” Again, “for vij elnis, 4 elne grene birge satyne, to be the Q u d s fule, ane
goune . . . sallow birge satyne, to be hir ane kirtill . . . blaid black gray, to lyne ye kirtill,” &c., and at her coronation
in 1540, “Item, deliuerit to ye Frenche tehur, to be ane cote to Serrat, the Quenis fule,” &c. Green and
yellow seems to have been the Court Fool’s livery. This is one of the very few instances on record of a Female
Buffoon or Fool, for the amusement of the Court The Queen’s establishment also included a male and female dwarf,
whose dresses figure in these accounts, alongside of such items, gs-“ For vj elnis of Parise blak, to be Maiter George
Balquhannane ane goune, at the Quenia Grace entre in Edinburghe.” “To Janet Douglaa, spous of David
Lindesay, of the Monthe XI. li.” To the POW penny, deliuerit to David Lindesay, Lyoune herald, on the Quenia
[Magdalen] Saull-Nes and Dirige,” &c. The following items from the Treasurer’s accounts show the existence of
similar eervitors in Queen Mary’s household :-“ 1562, Paid for ane cote, hois, lynyng and making, to Jonat Yusche,
fuler84,5a. 6d. Ane
abnkement to Jaquelene gouernance de la Jordiner. 1566, Ane garment of reid and yellow to be ane gowne, hois, and
cote, to Jane Colquhoun, fule. 1567, Ane abnlement of braid inglis yellow, to be cots and breikis,4lso aarkis,-to
James Geddie, fule.” Subsequent entries show that Queen Mary had a Female Fule, called 9‘ Niwlau, the Queen’s
Grace fule,” who would appear, from the following item, to have been retained in the service of the Regent after the
Queen’s flight to England :-“ 1570, The first day of August, be the Regent’s g. speciale command, to Nichola the fule,
to mak hir expensis and fraucht to France, L15.”
* No allusion occurs in any of the historians of the period in con6rmation of the tradition.
1565, For grene plading to mak ane bed to Jardinar, the fule, with white fustiane, feddem, &c.](images/thumbs/memorials/memorials_v1_Page_181.gif "Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time Page 163")
... STABLES, CASTLE BARNS, AND CASTLE HILL. 151
a piscina; and those of France were in the same position in ...
Book 10 p. 163
(Score 0.42)
... SKETCHES. 369
S. OP the Genealogy of the Family oP Seton in
the fourteenth century.
4, List of the ...
Book 8 p. 515
(Score 0.42)
![The Water of Leith.] THE LAUDERS. 83
massive little mansion of Groat Hall, with a thatched
roof, whilom the property of Sir John Smith, Provost
of the city in 1643, whose daughter figured
as the heroine of the strange story connected with
the legend of the Morocco Land in the Canongate,
and whose sister (Giles Smith) was wife of Sir
William Gray of Pittendrum.
St. Cuthbert?s Poorhouse, a great quadrangular
edifice, stands in the eastern vicinity of Craigleith
Quarry. It was built in 1866-7, at a cost of
jG40,000, and has amenities of situation and
elegance of structure very rarely associated with
a residence for the poor.
Eastward of Stockbridge, and almost forming an
integral part of it, lies the now nearly absorbed and
half extinct, but ancient, village of Silvermills, a secluded
hamlet once, clustering by the ancient milllade,
and which of old lay within the Earony of
Broughton. It was chiefly occupied by tanners,
whose branch of trade is still carried on there by
the lade, which runs under Clarence Street: through
the village, and passes on to Canonmills. Some of
the houses still show designs of thistles and roses
on gablets, With the crowsteps of the sixteenth
century.
A little to the west of St. Stephen?s Church, a
narrow lane leads downward to the village, passing
through what was apparently the main street, and
emerges at Henderson Row, so called from the
Lord Provost of that name. According to
Chambers, a walk on a summer day from the old
city to the village, a hundred years ago, was considered
a very delightful one, and much ?adopted
by idlers, the roads being then through corn-fields
and pleasant nursery-grounds.
No notice, says Chambers, has ever been taken
of Silvermills in any of the books regarding Edicburgh,
nor has any attempt ever been made to
account for its somewhat piquant name. ?I
shall endeavour to do so,? he adds. ?In 1607
silver was found in considerable abundance at
Hilderstone, in Linlithgowshire, on the property of
the gentleman who figures as Tarn 0? the Cowgate.
Thirty-eight barrels of ore were sent to the mint in
the Tower of London to be tried, and were found
to give twenty-four ounces of silver for every
hundredweight. Expert persons were placed upon
the mine, and mills were erected upon the Water
of Leith for the melting and fining the ore. The
sagacious owner gave the mine the name of Go8s
BZessing. By-and-bye the king heard of it, and,
thinking it improper that any such fountain of
wealth should belong to a private person, purchased
? God?s Blessing? for L~,OOO, that it might
be worked upon a larger scale for the benefit of
the public But somehow, from the time it left
the hands of the original owner, ? God?s Blessing?
ceased to be anything like so fertile as it had been,
and in time the king withdrew from the enterprise,
a great loser. The Silvermills I conceive to have
been a part of the abandoned plant.?
This derivation seems extremely probable, but
Wilson thinks the name may have originated in
some of the alchemical projects of James IV., or
his son, James V.
city,? says the Edinburgh Week& Magazine for
January, 1774, ?we are informed of a very singular
accident. On the nights of the zznd, 23rd, and
24th inst., the Canonmills dam, by reason of the
intenseness of the frost, was so gorged with ice and
snow, that at last the water, finding no vent, stagnated
to such a degree that it overfIowed the
lower floors of the houses in Silvermills, which
obliged many of the inhabitants to remove to the
risi,ng grounds adjacent. One family in particular,
not perceiving their danger till they observed the
cradle with a child in it afloat, and all the furniture
swimming, found it necessary to make their
escape out of the back windows, and were carried
on horseback to dry land.?
St. Stephen?s Established Church, at the foot
of St. Vincent Street, towers in a huge mass over
Silvermills, and was built in 1826-8, after designs
by W. H. Playfair, It is a massive octagonal
structure in mixed Roman style, with a grand, yet
simple, entrance porch, and a square tower 165 feet
high. It contains above 1,600 sittings. The parish
was disjoined from the conterminous parishes in
1828 by the Presbytery of Edinburgh and the Teind
Court. Itwas opened on Sunday, the 20th December,
1828, when the well-known Dr, Brunton preached
to the Lord Provost and magistrates in their official
robes, and the Rev. Henry Grey officiated in the
afternoon.
In an old mansion, immediately behind where
this church now stands, were born Robert Scott
Lauder, R.S. A., and his brother, James Eckford
Lauder, RSA., two artists of considerable note in
their time. The former was born in 1803, and for
some years, after attaining a name, resided in.No. 7,
Carlton Street. A love of art was early manifested
by him, and acquaintance with his young neighbour,
David Roberts, fostered it. The latter instructed
him in the mode of mixing colours, and urged him
to follow art as a profession ; thus, in his youth he
entered the Trustees? Academy, then under the
care of Mr. Andrew Wilson.
After this he went to London, and worked with
great assiduity in the British Museum. In 1826
?From Silvermills, a little northward of this .](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p094.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 83")
... Water of Leith.] THE LAUDERS. 83
massive little mansion of Groat Hall, with a thatched
roof, whilom the ...
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![High Street.] CARDINAL BEATON?S HDUSE. 263
his Heraldry :-? With us (the Scots) angels
have been frequently made use of as supporters.
Cardinal Beaton had his, supported by two angels,
in Dalmatic habits, or, as some say, priestly ones,
which are yet to be seen on his lodgings in Blackfriars
Wynd.? The cardinal?s arms, as borne on
his archiepiscopal seal, are Bethune and Balfour
quarterly, with a cross-crosslet-headed pastoral
staff, and the tasselled hat over all.
Upon all the buildings erected by the archbishop
?his armorial bearings were conspicuously displayed,?
says Wilson, ?and a large stone tablet
remained, till a few years since, over the archway
of Blackfriars Wynd, leading into the inner court,
supported by two angels in Dalmatic habits, and
surmounted by a crest, sufficiently defaced to enable
antiquaries to discover in it either a mitre or a
cardinal?s hat, according as their theory of the original
ownership inclined towards the archbishop
or his more celebrated nephew the cardinal.?
Occupying the space between Blackfriars Wynd
and Toddrick?s Wynd, the archiepiscopal palace
afforded a striking example of the revolutions
effected by time and change of manners on the
ancient abodes of the opulent and the noble. As
it appeared before its demolition no doubt could
be entertained that some portions of it had been
rebuilt, to suit the requirements of its last humble
denizens, but much remained to form connectinglinks
in the long chain of ages, The whole of the
entrance floor had been strongly groined with stone,
built on solid pillars, calculated to afford protection
during the brawls and conflicts of the times.
Within the arched passage that led from the
Wynd a broad flight of steps led to the first floor
of the palace, a mode of construction common in
those days, when the architect had to cogsider
security, and how the residents might resist an attack
till terms were obtained, or succour came.
In early times the whole of the space occupied by
the Mint in the Cowgate and other buildings to
the north thereof had been the garden grounds of
the archiepiscopal residence.
Here it was, as we have related, that the Earl
of Arran and his armed adherents held their stormy
conclave on the 30th of April, 1520, concerting the
capture and death of Angus, whose war array held
the High Street and barricaded the close-heads ;
and liere it WLS that Gawain Douglas, the Bishop of
Dunkeld, and translator of Virgil, whose two brothers
fell at Flodden, called on the archbishop,
and strove to keep the peace in vain, for the prelate
was already in his armour, and the dreadful conflict
of ? Cleanse the Causeway ? ensued, giving
victory to the Douglases, and compelling the
fugitive archbishop, during 1525, the time they
were.in power, to seek safety in the disguise of a
shepherd, and, literally, crook in hand, to tend
flocks of sheep on Bograin-knowe, not far from his
diocesan city of Glasgow.
James V, took up his abode in the archiepiscopal
palace in 1528, preparatory to the meeting of
Parliament, and the archbishop, who had been one
of the most active promoters of his liberation from
the Douglas faction, became his host and entertainer.
Here, in after years, resided his nephew,
David Beaton, the formidable cardinal, who, in
1547, was murdered so barbarously in the castle of
St. Andrew, and here also was literally the cradle
of the now farnous High School of Edinburgh, as it
was occupied as the ?Grammar Skule? in 1555,
while that edifice, which stood eahward of the
Kirk-of-field, was in course of erection,
We next hear of the little paiace in the reign of
Mary. On the 8th of February, 1562, her brother,
the Lord James Stewart, ? newly created Earl of
Mar (afterwards Moray) ? was married upon Agnes
Keith, daughter to William Earl Marischal,? says
the Diurnal of Occurrents, (? in the kirk of Sanct
Geil, in Edinburgh, with solemnity as the like has
not been seen before; the hale nobility of this
realm being there present, and convoyit them down
to Holyrood House, where the banquet was made,
the queen?s grace thereat.? After music and
dancing, casting of fire-balls, tilting with fire-spears,
and much jollity, next evening the queen, with all
her court, came up in state from Holyraod ?to
the cardinal?s lodging in the Blackfriar Wynd,
which was preparit and hung maist honourably.?
Then the queen and her courtiers had a joyous
supper, after which all the young craftsmen of the
city came in their armour, and conveyed her back
to Holyrood. Up Blackfriars Wynd, past the
house of the late cardinal, Queen Mary proceeded
on the fatal night of the 9th of February, 1567,
about the same time nearly that Bothwell and his
accomplices passed down the next alley, on their
way to the Kirk-of-field. She had dined that day
at Holyrood, and about eight in the evening went
to sup with the Bishop of Argyle. At nine she
rose from the table, and accompanied by the Earls
of Argyle, Cassilis, and Huntly, escorted by her
archer-guard and torch-bearers, went to visit
Darnley in the lonely Kirk-of-field, intending to
remain there for the night, but returned home. As
she was proceeding, three of Bothwell?s retainers,
Dalgleish, Powrie, and Wilson, in their depositions,
stated that after conveying the powder-bags to
the convent gate, at the foot of the Blackfriars
Wynd, they saw ?the Qucnes grace gangand](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p083.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II Page 263")
